>> live and in hd, this is abc 7 "news at noon," on your side. >> 12:00 on this friday afternoon. i am steve chenevey. >> i am cynne simpson. we begin with good news for the country and president obama. the u.s. unemployment rate has fallen below 8% for the first time in nearly a full your years. >> employers added 114th thousand jobs since september.

jobless rate fell to 7.8% last month and wages rose. the department also revised the numbers for july and august saying the economy at its 86,000 more jobs than first estimated. >> the jobs report is a big topic on the campaign trail. republican candidate mitt romney campaigning in battleground virginia. looks like they're getting ready to announce that he will be speaking soon at carter machinery in abingdon. president obama in virginia as well. >> scott thuman joins us from george mason university. seems like a more confident president obama than we saw during the debate scott. we would check back with him in a couple minutes. the president speaking after 11:00 this morning in virginia at george mason in fairfax. we will have a live report. >> a with abc 7, your election station. continuing coverage of the

election and the latest information on our website at wjla.com. turning to a story developing in bethesda. montgomery county fire fighters on the scene of a propane leak in bethesda. >> at least five homes have been evacuated. fire crews monitoring air quality. john gonzalez has an exclusive with the affected residents. >> unique, modern technology being added to this home. but careless mistake this morning for his -- put his entire neighborhoods in danger. >> you could smell the gas in the air. >> workers were digging thermal wells for heating and cooling but a bobcat excavator drove over a vent pipe connected to one of thousand dollars underground propane tank. hundreds of gallons started spewing into the air quickly. the panic level rose quickly. they called the hazmat team and we got evacuated. >> most of the homes on the block were evacuated. an elderly man needed assistance.

this is not the way residents wanted to start their day. >> a little disconcerting to drive down the driveway and discover emergency vehicles. >> propane hangs low, so we wanted to evacuate party next. nice weather with very little wind did not help disperse the gas. fire department unsuccessfully attempted to plug the leak before gas crews arrived. >> propane is highly volatile. >> i was glad it did not combust. that would've been serious. >> the fire department will keep a couple units on the scene while suburban propane stabilizing the line and completely empties this 1000 dagallon nerves of these residents. . questions or does county firefighters had to rescue people at an infant from the

burning apartment building. the fire broke out in the 5300 block of 85th avenue in new carrollton. no word on what started the fire. investigators trying to determine what sparked a fire at an apartment building in northwest that sent four to the hospital. the fire broke out last night on k street. the flames quickly engulfed the building. a firefighter was injured on the job. two people on the third floor were rescued by ladder truck. one man tried to climb out of the third floor window but ended up falling. he was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. >> a little chilly this morning and turned into a beautiful afternoon. >> not bad. how long will it stick around? adam caskey has the forecast. >> these temperatures will stick around only through today. tomorrow it will be close to average. in the second half of the

weekend there is a strong cold front. those details in a moment. first, this is in laurel and, 75 degrees. northwesterly breeze and 9 miles an hour, gusting up to 15. we are in the '70s for the most part now. 77 in arlington, 76 in leesburg. 74 in lanham, 79 in culpeper. low 80's for the high temperature across most of the viewing area. not very humid. late spring or early summer like. football games tonight, just fine clear and constable, in the '70s for the games. minneapolis, 47. the denver headlights no earlier this morn84 degrees in dallas. back to you. >> thank you. president obama in battleground virginia today on the heels of the favorable jobs report.

he started speaking at george mason university and wasted no time telling voters they need to vote for him in order to prevent another unemployment crisis. >> because of your strength and resilience, the strength and resilience of the american people, we have made too much progress to return to the policies that led to the crisis in the first place. i cannot allow that to happen. i will not allow tha. that's why i'm running for a second term as president of the united states. >> now the president heads to the battleground state of ohio for a campaign stop in cleveland. >> a personal dispute behind the deaths of photel chef and an american man from new york. he stole a gun from a hotel security guards in israel and fired several shots in the kitchen, killing the schef. killed police. he has not been identified.

>> as ceremony to remember the victims of the d.c. sniper shootings was held last night. >> we thank you vote, lord, for the opportunity to gather together for a solemn remembrancer. >> family and friends of the loved ones gunned down by john allen mohammed and lee boyd malvo gathered at the vigil in gaithersburg. there was a three-week killing spree in 2002 thats. a friend of the first victim told us why it was so important for him to come out. >> it was necessary to share with these people the healing that needs to go on and will continue to go on in my life every time i think about my best friend. >> mohammed was executed in 2009. malvo is serving a life sentence in a virginia prison.

>> 7 is on your side with new concerns over the outbreak of non contagious and rare form of meningitis. health officials say that thousands of people in 23 states including bees on the screen may be at risk for a phone call meningitis from contaminated steroid injections for back pain. -- fungal meningitis. five people died including one in virginia and one in maryland. this has been traced to a specialty pharmacy in massachusetts. they don't know how many people may been affected. >> coming up rihanna and chris brown, are they getting back together? listen to his own words. >> and why one colony of these is producing colorful creations -- colony of bees. >> and how you can raise breast cancer awareness. >> stay with us.

[ barack obama i'm barack obama and i approve this message. [ lefemale announcer ] he says... espresident obama and i bo care about poor and middle-class families. [ female announcer ] but this is what the budget plan mitt romomney supports actually does. more huge tax breaks skewed to the wealthy. whcue cutting nearly eight hundred billion from medicaid... even though middle-class

families rely on medicaid to help loved ones cover nursing-home care. and it helps parents support children with disabilities. if mitt romney really "cares," wouldn't we see it in his priorities? [ male announcer ] who will raise taxes on the middle class? according to an independent non-partisan study, barack obama and the liberals will raise taxes on the middle class by $4,000. the same organization says the plan from mitt romney and common sense conservatives is "not a tax hike on t the middle class." want proof? read the non-partisan study for yourself at american.com. bama and his liberal allies? we can't afford four more years. i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

>> you are watching abc 7 "news at noon," on your side. with cynne simpson and steve chenevey. >> rumors are swirling that

chris brown and rihanna once againends. several pictures were taken of them together. he announced yesterday that he broke up with his girlfriend because he did not what to hurt his friendship with rihanna. there is footage of his video on whether it possible to share love with two women at once. >> i don't know if it's possible. >> brown did admit that he was a bit drunk during that recording. he insulted rihanna in 2009. rihanna even admitted during a recent interview with oprah winfrey that part of her still does love brown. meantime pat summit said she

did not want to retire, that she was forced to do so. she made the announcement eight months after being diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's. she said the of athletic director told her she could no longer coach, according to an affidavit filed yesterday. he said that it was a misinterpretation. prince george's county firefighters and paramedics are going pink in t-shirts designed to raise awareness about breast cancer. fire and ems are selling t- shirts at $15 and the money will be used for breast cancer research. to find out how to buy a t- shirt, there's a link on our website, wjla.com. americans still canceling flights as they struggled to fix loose seats. 44 more flights canceled today after 50 work council on thursday. the seats came loose involving planes that were recently refurbished. the planes are expected to all be back in service by tomorrow.

>> you might want to leave yourself extra time if you plan to use metro this weekend. metro says red line trains will be single-tracking between judiciary square and fort totten. orange line trains between stadium-armory and cheverly. work begins at 10:00 tonight and will run until closing on monday. no schedule track work on the blue or the yellow or green this weekend. >> it's a holiday weekend. i escaped outside earlier and did not want to come back inside. it's nice. >> very pleasant. especially if you like low humidity with warm temperatures in the 70's and low 80s. >> a limited appearance? >> very limited. we have reminder that it is still october, that will hit us this weekend. you will really notice the change by sunday into columbus state. a beautiful shot from our rooftop camera overlooking the potomac, roosevelt island, into

the district, nothing but sunshine. sunshine outside right now. that will be the case for the majority of our region. we will have a few clouds later this afternoon especially northwest of washington. 79 degrees at reagan national currently. that's above average. look at the dew point of 57. that's not bad, fairly low humidity. temperatures are up and dew points are down, so it's comfortable for this early october. 73 in winchester, 75 in martinsburg, 68 in cumberland. 63 in oakland. 77 at bwi, dulles, and manassas. i want to point this out look to our northwest. 34 degrees in minnesota. eastern north dakota yesterday had no words of a foot of snow

-- upwards of a foot. that cold front will bring colder air for us. there is a pinwheel in southern canada still dumping snow in parts of southern canada around winnipeg and parts of northern minnesota seeing light snow on the backside of this system. a strong cold front will continue marching our way and make it here by tomorrow. we have a fair amount of clout and a few showers along the front currently in the midsection of the country and moving into the ohio valley. the front will move into town around here and we will have a few sprinkles midday saturday. generally a dry day. the big changes will be on sunday. for the rest of today, 83 degrees. by 7:00 p.m., 78 degrees. sliding into the low 70's by 10:00 p.m. in the fifties tonight with clear skies.

highs in the 50's by sunday. going from the low 80s today to mid 70's tomorrow to mid 50's for the high temperature on sunday with scattered rain throughout a good part of the day on sunday. raw. there's the reminder that it is not spring. here comes the. cold the >> ready or not. >> that will keep our pumpkins fresh on the porch. an arlington girl is alive because of the proper use of cpr. this little girl almost died in a drowning accident at a pool party but someone who the right way to perform cpr on the four- year-old. h we will. er he-- you can meet her hero tonight and her parents. >> and what's coming up on 2020 /20. >> and an exclusive interview

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captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> it is a bizarre court case that we have been following. a man in georgia convicted of stalking a woman who was defending himself and his murder trial, questioning some of his victims. was sentenced to life plus 47 years in prison this past week. >> two of his victims will be speaking out on 20/20. chris cuomo has a preview. it must have been so difficult for the victim's. >> a fascinating case, very difficult for the victim's. were being confronted by a man who terrorized them for a year. imagine being asked questions by someone who knows the answer is, who was speaking about himself in the third person. what made the case interesting was stalking is something that

we all fear and we wonder what we would do if it happened to us. this is a cautionary tale tonight about what direction stalkers can go and how we can help ourselves. >> when you mentioned that case it's fascinating for folks in court, the legal community, and those of us who cover it. but it affects every day americans >> . yes. and it is a difficult area of the law. by its nature, it is an incomplete crime. am i doing when i'm following you around? i am not actually hurting them or doing anything. baker went to jail for 10 years for stockin -- stalking. however, it was not enough and when he got out, much worse

things happened. justice was finally done. it is a formal interview tonight. >> we look forward to watching. thanks for joining us. we invite our audience to watch at 10:00 to catch the entire segment and then stay with us for abc 7 news at 11:00. >> the co-founder of apple steve jobs, died a year ago today. recognized as a pioneer of the personal computer revolution. he managed the development of the aimak, itunes, ipod iphone -- imac. he died of cancer a year ago in his 50's. >> ann romney will be a guest host on good morning america on wednesday. she will appear during the 8:00 hour. she's one of several celebrities including open winfrey and steven colbert filling in for robin roberts while she's on medical leave.

abc is in talks with the michelle obama for a similar guest appearance before next month's election. and adam caskey as a final look at the weather. >> stay with u [ harry umlaut ] here we go. [ sally umlaut ] what? the five stages of muller. ah yes... stage one: suspicion. "it's a yogurt how good can it be?" stage two: revision. "actually, this ain't bad." stage three: surprise! "look at this cool cornery thing! i love this stuff!!" stage four: desolation. "it's gone!" stage five: anticipation "i guess i could always have another"... "have you been through the five stages of mulleret?" "yeah, just now." [ male announcer ] muller. the european for yummy.

greg beekeepers in france were stumped as to why the bees were producing blue and green honey at. they decided to stop getting nectar from flowers and were getting their sugar from a nearby plant that processes

waste from an m&m candy factory. honey is tainted and cannot be eaten. factory officials have figured out a way to keep the bees from getting access to the waist -- waste. >> bees have a sweet tooth. the first nationals game is sunday and that may be a good thing regarding the weather. >> and we have the redskins. >> o i think it will work in our favor. i'm optimistic. on sunday, in the '50s and training. then sunshine early next week and much cooler. >> thanks for being with us.